The State Department is claiming “important executive branch institutional interests” in its refusal to hand over “a small number” of documents requested by the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

The position was made clear in a letter by Assistant Secretary of State Julia Frifield to Rep. Trey Gowdy, who chairs the House committee.

The State Department did turn over 3,600 pages of Benghazi-related documents, according to Frifield. Those documents are from Susan Rice, Jake Sullivan, and Cheryl Mills.

Rice is the dingbat who appeared on every single Sunday morning talk show on one day to try to make the laughable case that Benghazi was the result of a YouTube video.

“Under the terms of this agreement, the documents are being provided without the majority of department redactions that would normally be applied to protect national security, law enforcement, and diplomatic efforts of the United States, as well as the safety and privacy of the individuals named herein,” Frifield wrote to Gowdy. “In return, the Benghazi committee has agreed that, in the event that it considers it integral to the satisfaction of the Benghazi committee’s mandate to release any of these documents publicly, it will first give the State Department a reasonable opportunity of at least five days to review the documents proposed to be released and to discuss with the Benghazi committee any sensitive information the department believes should be redacted prior to the public release. The Benghazi committee has agreed to consider such requests in good faith prior to making any such release.”

“In addition,” Frifield continued, “a small number of documents implicate important executive branch institutional interests and are therefore not included in this production.”